In a distribution system, a retailer or other product distributor (which may collectively be referred to as distributors) typically maintains an inventory of various items at one or more distribution centers, fulfillment centers, cross-docking facilities, materials handling facilities or warehouses (which may collectively be referred to herein as a materials handling facility). The inventory items are ordered from one or more vendors, received at the materials handling facilities as inbound shipments, and stocked in inventory of the materials handling facilities. In an order fulfillment process, orders for items may be received from customers of the distributor. Units of the ordered items are picked from various locations of inventory in the materials handling facilities, processed for shipping, and shipped as outbound shipments to the customers. A given materials processing network may include any number of such materials handling facilities in order to fulfill customer demand. Since inventory levels and customer demand for units of inventory items may vary over time, the manner in which inventory is to be allocated in the future among the materials handling facilities of a materials processing network may not be readily apparent.
While various embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that various embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of various embodiments as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.